Economics
U.S. Jobs & Labor Report: March 2024
Report summary
Much of the ongoing resilience of the U.S. consumer can be attributed to the strength of the jobs market: companies hire workers, workers then turn their salaries into consumption and tax revenue, which in turn drives demand for more workers.
As domestic sources of increased labor supply stagnate, the U.S. economy can increase the supply of labor to meets its robust near-term demand by turning to immigration.
Key Takeaways
- Labor force participation drove some of the strong job growth in the U.S. over the past three years, but additional gains seem unlikely given the downward trend in labor force participation and structural barriers limiting more full-time work.
- The shift to remote work unlocked labor supply in different geographies, but trends in working from home have stabilized, suggesting limits to the amount of remaining untapped labor supply.
- Immigration offers one clear source of additional labor supply to meet the near-term need, increasingly leaving the fate of the U.S. labor market in the hands of politicians.
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About the author
John Leer leads Morning Consult’s global economic research, overseeing the company’s economic data collection, validation and analysis. He is an authority on the effects of consumer preferences, expectations and experiences on purchasing patterns, prices and employment.
John continues to advance scholarship in the field of economics, recently partnering with researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland to design a new approach to measuring consumers’ inflation expectations.
This novel approach, now known as the Indirect Consumer Inflation Expectations measure, leverages Morning Consult’s high-frequency survey data to capture unique insights into consumers’ expectations for future inflation.
Prior to Morning Consult, John worked for Promontory Financial Group, offering strategic solutions to financial services firms on matters including credit risk modeling and management, corporate governance, and compliance risk management.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and philosophy with honors from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in economics and management studies (MEMS) from Humboldt University in Berlin.
His analysis has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Washington Post, The Economist and more.
Follow him on Twitter @JohnCLeer. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected]
